An internment center where Japanese Americans were relocated in Amache, Colo., is shown on June 21, 1943. The attorney for the plaintiffs in a Washington state school-funding case compares the violation of students’ rights to a fully funded education to the violation of Japanese Americans’ rights during World War II. AP

An internment center where Japanese Americans were relocated in Amache, Colo., is shown on June 21, 1943. The attorney for the plaintiffs in a Washington state school-funding case compares the violation of students’ rights to a fully funded education to the violation of Japanese Americans’ rights during World War II. AP

It was enough to prompt some lawmakers to object on social media. State Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg, tweeted Wednesday that the “McCleary plaintiffs jump(ed) the shark” by comparing Washington’s schools to internment camps.

“If I were a teacher, I’d be ticked,” Manweller tweeted.

In Ahearne’s latest court filing, he argues the court needs to impose harsh sanctions on the state due to the Legislature’s lack of progress on fixing school-funding problems. Here are some of the more colorful metaphors he employs to make his point.

“Repeatedly asserting an inaccurate statement makes that statement familiar to the ear,” Ahearne writes. “Which is part of why a propaganda artist in the last century maintained that if the government asserts a falsehood and keeps repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it’s true.”

Ahearne makes it clear he’s referring to Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, by including one of his quotes: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

History shows us what happens if courts ignore the rule of law when elected officials violate constitutional rights.

Ahearne includes in his brief a photo of Japanese Americans being removed from Bainbridge Island and sent to internment camps during World War II. He compares that violation of citizens’ rights to Washington’s violation of students’ rights to an amply funded K-12 education.

“History shows us what happens if courts ignore the rule of law when elected officials violate constitutional rights,” Ahearne writes. “E.g., the Japanese-American Exclusion orders during World War II.”

George Wallace blocking school desegregation

Ahearne trots out this metaphor again after using it in prior briefs. His latest filing includes a photo of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace in 1963, standing in a doorway to block the entry of two black students to an auditorium at the University of Alabama.

Ahearne suggests that the state Supreme Court should follow in the footsteps of Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who is shown confronting Wallace to enforce a court order to desegregate the public university.

“... Elected officials who run our government are not above the law,” Ahearne writes.

Last year, the court began imposing $100,000 a day in fines over the Legislature’s failure to produce a plan to fully fund schools. The state has now racked up more than $28 million in fines, but state lawmakers didn’t appropriate money in their budget this year to pay for them.

Lawyers for the state argued that’s forgivable because the state has plenty of money in its reserves to cover the fine.

Ahearne disagrees.

“That ‘excuse’ is akin to a driver being fined for violating the speed limit in front of an elementary school, and then telling the court his refusal to pay that fine should be excused since he has plenty of money in his bank account to pay the fine if he wanted to,” Ahearne argues.

But Ahearne says actually, the Legislature is Lucy, and the court is Charlie. After being tricked so many times, Charlie Brown (the court) shouldn’t trust Lucy (the Legislature) anymore to follow through on its word.

“Saying ‘But This Time We Mean It’ ” doesn’t work, Ahearne writes, including an image of Charlie Brown standing in front of Lucy with the football.

More Videos

Olympia Indivisible co-founder Lisa Ornsteen addresses the roughly 100 participants of a noon rally at the entrance to the state Insurance Building on the Capitol campus Olympia, sharing a list of concerns the group has with the proposed GOP tax bill.